About Us

The Beginnings of Our Alpaca Farm in Pennsylvania

It started with yarn. Kathy loves to knit, so when we visited the Luckett’s Fair in Lucketts, Virginia, of course we stopped at the yarn vendor. The alpaca yarn was lovely, soft, and totally irresistible. We bought enough to knit a wrap, with plenty left over.

We also talked, and admired the photos of the crias that had been born two weeks before the Fair. Without even realizing it, we had found our plan for retirement! The next weekend, driving home from our weekend place in West Virginia, we spotted an “Alpaca Farm Store Open” sign, and that was that. We stopped in, visited the alpacas, shopped at the farm store, talked with the owner, and then spoke of nothing else for weeks. At Christmas we went back to buy some alpaca slippers and socks (you’ll not find warmer or softer socks!) and ended up starting our herd.

We started as a one-alpaca farm – our Macaria was agisted at Bear Garden Farm in West Virginia. Her (and our) first cria was born the following April. We named her Esperanza, which means Hope. Since then our little herd has grown – Macaria is now a grandmother several times over. Esperanza has had two crias of her own. We’ve purchased a few more animals, slowly grew to 10 alpacas, who were agisted at Double 8 Alpaca Ranch in Lovettsville, Virginia. And now, we have an alpaca farm of our own where we live with our growing herd, located in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.

We’ve spent the last couple of years learning as much as possible about the care and feeding of alpacas. We’ve helped with shearing day, and Kathy has learned to spin her own yarn. She’s also dusted off that rigid heddle loom, purchased a triangle loom, and is weaving shawls and rugs. Our daughter, Julia, has graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Animal Sciences.

We’ve built our herd to be show-quality animals and have won some beautiful ribbons! We’ve also learned that the mills that process our gorgeous fleece into yarn prefer fleece that it is not quite as fine as what the judges are looking for in the show ring – so we are back to yarn. Our goal is to produce the softest, brightest alpaca yarn we can.